Hikers

I did this walk back in 1997, just after finishing University. There was a whole bunch of us, though only JD and me walked from the beginning, the other joined at Ardlui, a few days into the hike: they were

• JD - long time hiking partner
• Anna - friend from unversity, keen hiker, and organizer of weekends in the Peak District
• Anna's sister
• Mike - housemate at university, frequently dragged along to the Welsh peaks
• Jason - good friend from Uni, now concentrating on getting a accountancy qualification

The walk

The walk starts off in Milngavie, a small place just outside Glasgow. The first days walk is OK, but nothing special, as it is still within the reaches of Glasgow. The going was easy at first, but it did drag out as we had overpacked as always, and were still suffering from a few solid days drinking to celebrate the end of our exams.

We each had food (most of it dried camping meals) for about 4 days, for some reason I thought that we might have a problem re-stocking along the way, but as it happens there is plenty of food to buy in Scotland and I think I never ate all the food I brought.

Anyway, we found a pretty scenic yet basic campsite close to Drymen, and after a while managed to work out how JDs ultra modern stove worked.

Day two was tough, much more so that we had expected. First of all our packs were really feeling heavy, and also the midgees, small bastard flies, were coming out in their millions. Basically there is nothing one can do, as there is too many of the to kill, except waslk fast and cover up as much as possible. Mosquito repellant kind of works, but it has to be prety strong and applied very frequently. The first half of the day is a climb up a hill through nice forest tracks, the second part along the southern end of Loch Lomond. The second section is very scenic, but after a while it got quiet tough as the path hogs the steep lake side, and it started raining as well. We finally got to a National Trust campsite, free!, but JD was not in a very good mood, knackered and bitten to death, and I think he said something along the lines of going home if it does not get better the next day.

Day three was better though, despite more walking in rain and muddy paths, the ground was quiet even and we made good time. There are impressive views of Ben Lomond (990 meters), which is right next to the walk and a worthy side tour, but we had arrange to meet the other at Ardlui in the late afternoon. We set up the tent at a very nice campsite, after getting a ride across the lake, and as arranged met up at the train station with the others. The rest of the evening was spent in the pub, a very cheerful night, if I remember correctly, and JD especially was in a better mood.

The next few days were good though bad weather and midgess dampended spirits somewhat. The route goes though fairly remote valleys, with impressive mountain views, and although there are villages and roads close by there is a felling of remotness greater than it was on any of the English walks I had done. One section that stands out is the long walk from Tyndrum to Kings House Hotel on day five. There are hardly any roads, though there is a nice pub for lunch in the middle of nowhere, and at the end of the day there is a long apprach to Glen Coe mountain, very impressive, and a cosy pub at the Hotel. I went out for a wander on my own late that evening, just walking towards Glen Coe, taking a few pictures, and was mesmerised, one of those weired feelings of awe that I sometimes get in the middle of nowhere.

The last 2 days we had bad weather, which was a shame as I am sure approaching Ben Nevis with good views must be cool, but we hoped for better weather the next day, and a change to go up the mountain. As it happened that weather was worse that day, also Mile had a bad knee and my legs felt pretty bad from the long downhill the day before, so we decided to head back to Leeds instead.

Conclusion

The West Highland way is my favourite walk in the UK so far, partly because iof the scenery and the remotness, but also because we had a good group, all keen hikers, all getting along with each other. If I did it again, I and I hope I do, I would probably go a little earlier, maybe mid May, to avoid the midgess, and carry lots of less gear, but it is tough to get that many friends to take a week off for a hike, especially now that we are all working, so maybe it will have to wait a while.